“Through the North Street Book Prize, we hope to boost the visibility of excellent writers whose books simply didn’t fit into the big conglomerates’ marketing plans.”
Jendi Reiter
Whenever I see a promising, reputably run contest, I’m happy to alert you to it—the North Street Book Prize is highly regarded.
Choose from eight categories:
- Mainstream/Literary Fiction
- Genre Fiction
- Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
- Poetry
- Children’s Picture Book
- Middle Grade
- Graphic Novel & Memoir
- Art Book
$22,000 will be awarded in all, and the top nine winners will receive additional benefits to help market their books. Books published on all self-publishing and hybrid-publishing platforms are eligible. Any year of publication is eligible. Entry fee: $85 per book, with free gifts for everyone who enters. All entrants who submit online via Submittable can choose to receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences) at no extra charge.
Winning Writers is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and this contest is recommended by Reedsy. Click to learn more about our contest.
The goal of the contest is to give self-published authors access to the high-quality resources and audience-building tools that traditionally published books benefit from. Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter, who’ll judge the contest, notes:
“We started this contest for the same reason that you wrote your book: We love a good story. We believe that narrative writing, whether fiction or memoir, has a unique ability to awaken empathy and illuminate complex truths of human nature.
“We’re holding your books to the same standard as the best titles from traditional publishers: polished writing, believability, dramatic tension, a story structure that foregrounds the major plot elements, and characters worth following. The freshness we seek in a story is best described as urgency: a book that convinces us that it had to be written.”
You can submit online or by mail. The entry fee is $50 per book and the deadline is July 1. Write on!
